University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have discovered a protein in the cell wall of parasites that’s crucial to the molecular mechanism allowing them to move between cells, survive and cause disease.
The discovery was made in Toxoplasma gondii, an organism that can cause blindness and brain damage in people with an impaired immune system and can cause severe disease in first trimester fetuses. In addition, the organism is used as a model experimental system for s
Tape-recorders allow us to record and analyze birds’ singing, but communicating with birds is more difficult
From time immemorial, people have listened to the birds singing, recognized birds by voices, have been able to guess their condition. Some people are able to successfully imitate bird’s singing. Only in the 50s of the last century, researchers managed to put the matter on a strictly scientific basis, when the tape equipment became available. Researchers started to record birds’
Thanks to biophysicists, statistics has reached the most intimate aspect of life – regulation of genes’ activity. Investigation on probabilistic aspects of molecular biology has been supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the INTAS Foundation.
Regulation of genes’ activity is one of the most important biological problems which has not been solved so far. A cell switches on and off its genes through multiple factors, which, if required, interact with certain sections of a
Research proves that use of antibacterial detergents in the home and in hospitals can reduce the development of superbugs, according to an article published in the May 2004 issue of Microbiology Today, the quarterly magazine for the Society for General Microbiology. Using antibacterial products, including disinfectants and antiseptics, has been found to lessen the chance of infection and as a result cut down on the use of antibiotics.
Modern over-use of antibacterial soaps and cleaners to co
Scientists have demonstrated the importance of programmed cell death in preventing inbreeding in plants, according to research published in Nature today. Researchers at the University of Birmingham School of Biosciences have found that self-incompatibility, an important mechanism in plants that prevents them fertilizing themselves with their own pollen, which is genetically controlled by products of the S locus, triggers programmed cell death in incompatible pollen coming into contact with the stigma
Amyloid fibers, those clumps of plaque-like proteins that clog up the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, have perplexed scientists with their robust structures. In laboratory experiments, they are able to withstand extreme heat and cold and powerful detergents that cripple most other proteins. The fibers are in fact so tough that researchers now are exploring ways that they can be used in nanoscale industrial applications. While they are not necessarily the cause of Alzheimer’s, they are assoc
Scientists have found that living cells will sometimes “shoot the messenger” as a way to halt production of certain proteins
The study, published in the May 21 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, shows that cells sometimes destroy the chemical messages that contain information for making proteins even as the messages are being “read.” The work was done by scientists at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Resea
Male bullfrogs communicate with other bullfrogs through calls made up of a series of croaks, some of which contain stutters, according to a new Brown University study which describes a pattern not previously identified in scientific literature.
Researchers recorded 2,536 calls from 32 male bullfrogs in natural chorus and analyzed the number of croaks in each call and the number of stutters in each croak. It is known that the male bullfrog’s call attracts females for mating, maintains territo
Brown University researchers have found that there are multiple independent ways to stop cell division, a phenomenon that prevents the spread of genetic mutation, which can make cells cancerous. Results of this research, along with an accompanying editorial, were published in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.
The findings will be of interest to scientists who are developing new-generation drugs that target cancer at the molecular level, according to John Sedivy, principal inve
Scientists will have a new view of how the AIDS virus (HIV) enters a target cell and begins its process of infection, thanks to a technique created by researchers at the Salk Institute.
The technique allows scientists to observe for the first time the steps taken by viruses like HIV after they enter a cell. The study was done with a chicken virus that was modified to contain the genes of HIV. Both the chicken virus and HIV are retroviruses, which means their genomes are made from RNA rather
Many flowering plants prevent inbreeding and increase genetic diversity by a process called self-incompatibility, in which pollination fails to set seed if the pollen is identified as its own by the pistil. A research team, led by Teh-hui Kao, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State, has announced, in a paper published in the May 20 issue of Nature, the discovery of a gene of petunias that controls pollen function in self-incompatibility. This discovery completes a critical miss
The progressing AIDS epidemic has prompted a revival of interest in pneumocytosis, a respiratory infection which appears only in immunodepressed humans and can be fatal if treatment is not given. The agent responsible is a microscopic fungus, albeit usually non-pathogenic, which lives in the pulmonary alveoli. Searching for possible sources of human contamination in animal reservoirs proved negative: only the species specific for humans, Pneumocystis jirovecii, can trigger pneumonia in humans. This w
Blocking a molecule that rids cells of potentially toxic molecules might make chemotherapy for leukemia more effective, but it could also leave healthy stem cells more vulnerable to toxic cancer treatment drugs
Inactivating a protective molecule in leukemic cells to make them more vulnerable to chemotherapy might also make healthy blood-forming cells more sensitive to the toxic effects of those same drugs. These findings have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by in
Experiments reverse cells’ developmental course
In experiments with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins scientists have restored the insect’s sperm-making stem cells by triggering cells on the way to becoming sperm to reverse course. The unexpected findings are described in the May 13 issue of Science.
Like all stem cells, the fruit fly’s sperm-making stem cells can renew themselves or can develop into more specialized cells — eventually sperm in this case. While a few types of fai
A team led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one step closer to understanding the function of a protein linked to an inherited form of the movement disorder dystonia.
The protein, torsinA, is defective in patients with DYT1 dystonia, an inherited condition that causes uncontrollable movements in the limbs and torso. Learning what torsinA does could be an important step toward developing a treatment for the disorder.
“The hope is that underst
Scientists identify a key mechanism to recognize misfolded proteins
Scientists at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine have discovered a key step that will provide new targets for treatments of many degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Cystic Fibrosis and Diabetes. Dr. David Thomas, Chair of Biochemistry, Dr. John Bergeron, Chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology and colleagues have identified a mechanism by which misfolded proteins are recognized in the cell. This is a c
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